Social media is a giant cocktail party. I am not the first person to point this out, as the existence of this book would suggest (I haven't read it but since the author's title confirms my opinion, I am inclined to believe it's brilliant). I recently attended an interesting presentation...

Clayton Christensen is an inspiring guy. Not only has he disrupted the business world throughout his career as one of the foremost innovation academics, he has also overcome a bout with cancer and a recent stroke. Introduced as "the Kobe Bryant of the innovation world," he kicked off the 2011...

Flipping through the channels over the weekend, I came across one of my favorite movies of all time: Old School. Like the subject of this clever Onion article, I ended up neglecting my plans and old school innovationre-watching this comedy classic in its entirety. I saw the movie...

Yesterday at the PDMA Conference on Social Product Development and Co-Creation, we heard from David Ritter, CEO of InnoCentive. David talked about using challenge-driven product development in a B2B environment to take advantage of resources working outside of the immediate sphere and accelerate...

New management ideas and practices, especially those on a hot upward trajectory, are like drugs. They produce unwanted side effects. As their adoption and usage becomes more widespread, so do the misconceptions and mythologies surrounding them.Take the case of Co-creation...

Like any new business initiative, incorporating social product innovation strategy and technology into existing innovation and product development processes is likely to encounter resistance and lack of support. At the PDMA Conference on Social Product Development and Co-Creation, I‘m looking...

I come from a maker family. I learned to sew and draw at the same time, and I was given a hammer, nails and scrap wood to play with at a very young age. This environment made me confident that I could build my own solutions with any tools that were available to me. Any skill I needed...

Many leading companies are now adopting open innovation (OI) as a way to drive their new product development. Companies such as Proctor and Gamble, IBM, LG Electronics, Kraft Foods, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever and Kimberly-Clark are all enthusiastic advocates of this approach.

The social web has dramatically transformed the customer relationship and is changing the rules of how products are created. Customers are no longer passive providers of static feedback- they are active collaborators in the co-design of products and services. In addition, the multitude...

Communities gather around a shared set of values, and they all have different currencies. It could be money, recognition, relationships or just pure entertainment. Success for any co-creation process means...

How successful is Open Innovation as an innovation method? For leaders like Proctor and Gamble the answer is obvious but the same can’t be said for the vast majority of enterprises taking this route. Partner of The Conference on Social Product Development & Co-Creation, Doug Berger...

I recently heard John Hagel, Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge, speak about the effective application of social software in organizations. Contrary to the knee jerk reaction by many companies to "check the social software block" by throwing up a Facebook page, and desperately...

Culture is king at Zappos. At the World Innovation Forum, Tony Hsieh told the audience that there are five things Zappos does to build and cultivate their unique company culture focused on customer service.

This week I’m attending the PDMA Conference on Social Product Development and Co-Creation. One of my favorite speakers on the Monday agenda was Ben Kaufman, the founder and CEO of Quirky. Ben is a fantastic speaker and clearly brings a high level of enthusiasm to his company and the idea...

It seems like nothing stirs a good debate in product development and innovation circles better than what role customers should play in figuring out what to ship. Although it’s a lot of fun to watch, much of the discussion generates more heat than light. In today’s hyper-polarized culture...

Browsing the programs at Enterprise 2.0 and the PDMA’s own Conference on Social Product Development and Co-Creation, it’s obvious that the collective opinion on enterprise social media is pretty bullish. A cottage industry has emerged selling the benefits of collaboration among your employees...